58 Facts About Ty Herndon

Boyd Tyrone Herndon was born on May 2,1962 and is an American country music singer and songwriter.

Ty Herndon quit the band early on and gained his first national exposure as a competitor on Star Search.

Ty Herndon recorded a Christmas album in 2002 before a recording hiatus.

Ty Herndon returned with his fifth studio album, Right About Now for the Titan Pyramid label; his sixth studio release, Journey On, followed in 2010.

Ty Herndon has charted a total of 17 singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts.

Ty Herndon gained further media attention in 2014 after he came out as gay, becoming the first mainstream male country music singer to do so.

Boyd Tyrone Ty Herndon was born on May 2,1962, in Meridian, Mississippi, to Boyd and Renee Ty Herndon.

Ty Herndon was raised just across the state line in Butler, Alabama.

Ty Herndon's grandmother played guitar and hosted her own radio show in Butler.

Shortly after graduating from Austin High School in Decatur, Alabama, Ty Herndon moved to Nashville, Tennessee, to pursue a career in country music.

Ty Herndon left the band after only a year to become a contestant on the television talent show Star Search.

When his tenure on Star Search proved commercially unsuccessful, Ty Herndon attempted to secure a recording contract in Nashville.

Ty Herndon told The Tennessean in 1995 that multiple labels rejected him as they considered him a "pretty boy".

Ty Herndon lost a significant amount of money due to an unfavorable management deal, which led to his mother having to sell her house in order to refinance the amount of money lost.

Ty Herndon then moved to Texas and found work performing in various honky-tonks across the state, in order to regain some of the money he had lost.

Ty Herndon competed on another television talent show titled You Write the Songs in 1987, but was unsuccessful.

Ty Herndon appeared on The Porter Wagoner Show, a musical variety show hosted by country singer Porter Wagoner.

In 1993, Ty Herndon won a local music award called Texas Entertainer of the Year.

At the awards ceremony, Ty Herndon was discovered by a representative of Epic Records, and he signed with the label later in the year.

Ty Herndon made his debut in early 1995 with the single "What Mattered Most", a song written by Gary Burr and Vince Melamed.

Ty Herndon promoted the album further by starting a tour in 1995.

In 1996, Ty Herndon won the Male Star of Tomorrow, a fan-voted award from the TNN Music City News awards.

Ty Herndon selected a new producer for this album, as he thought his previous albums did not reflect the energy of his live performances.

Oslin, a 1980s country artist Ty Herndon referred to as "one of [his] all-time favorites".

Ty Herndon selected the songs for the album by performing them in concert so he and Scaife could gauge the audience's reaction to each.

Also included on the album was a cover of Joe Cocker's "You Can Leave Your Hat On", which Ty Herndon had sung in concert for many years prior.

Ty Herndon considered the album more "sexy" than his previous efforts, citing both this cover and the title track as examples.

At the time, Ty Herndon was considering exiting the music business to star in a Broadway theatre production of Urban Cowboy, but decided against it.

Ty Herndon released a Christmas album, A Not So Silent Night, in 2002 through his fan club and official website.

Ty Herndon returned to touring and singing in 2004 when songwriter Darrell Brown invited him to perform at the Nashville nightclub Bluebird Cafe.

Brown and Ty Herndon co-produced the album with songwriter Dennis Matkosky and session musician Jonathan Yudkin.

The album featured mostly contemporary Christian music songs, all of which Ty Herndon wrote or co-wrote over the span of six months.

Ty Herndon said that he did not intend for the album to be a Christian project, but found that as he was writing, many of the songs tended toward reflecting his "spiritual growth".

Ty Herndon said that he found the album "fun" because of how much control he had over assembling musicians and recording compared to his previous releases.

Ty Herndon noted that the track "Beautiful Love Song" had been written eight years prior and rejected by other artists, but he chose to record it because he liked the sound of the song's demo.

Ty Herndon compared this track to "Steam", and cited it as an example of the more "modern" sound he wanted on Lies I Told Myself.

Ty Herndon financed the album through a Kickstarter campaign, and supported it by touring with Jamie O'Neal and Andy Griggs.

Ty Herndon described the title track as autobiographical, while in comparison, "All Night Tonight" came from Davis and Halbig wanting to write a "beach song".

Ty Herndon said that he had almost considered retiring from country music due to the lack of success of his last few albums until he heard "So Small" on the radio.

When Underwood found that Ty Herndon had covered the song, she spoke favorably about it on social media.

In 2020, Ty Herndon collaborated with Kristin Chenoweth and Paul Cardall on a single titled "Orphans of God".

Ty Herndon told Spin that the album's title came from the account of Jacob wrestling with the angel in the Book of Genesis.

Ty Herndon's singing voice has generally been met with critical favor.

In June 1995, Ty Herndon was arrested in Fort Worth, Texas, at Gateway Park by an undercover male police officer.

When taken into custody, Ty Herndon was discovered to be in possession of methamphetamine.

Ty Herndon filed a plea bargain and was sentenced to community service and drug rehabilitation, after which the charge of indecent exposure was dropped.

Ty Herndon had a lawsuit filed against him by a California dentist claiming that Herndon had not paid for emergency dental work and another lawsuit from a former manager for breach of contract.

Ty Herndon successfully underwent drug rehabilitation a second time in late 2020-early 2021.

At the time, Ty Herndon's manager told The Advocate he did not know Ty Herndon's orientation, but thought country music "was ready" for an artist to come out as gay.

Ty Herndon came out as gay in a 2014 interview with People magazine, thus becoming the first mainstream male country star to do so.

Ty Herndon stated that he had been in a gay relationship for several years at this point, and that his ex-wife and several close family members already knew.

Ty Herndon was partnered with his boyfriend Matt Collum for eleven years before the two amicably separated in 2021.

In relation to his coming out, Ty Herndon re-issued "What Mattered Most" in June 2019 with the song's pronouns changed to reflect a gay relationship.

Many of the songs on House on Fire, including the title track, are about the stigmas that Ty Herndon felt he faced as a gay man in country music, typically a more conservative genre.

Ty Herndon credited conversations with country singer Chely Wright, who came out as a lesbian in 2010, with giving him the confidence to come out.

Ty Herndon's announcement preceded the coming out of several other gay musicians in the genre, such as Billy Gilman.

Ty Herndon noted that his fan base was largely supportive of him after his announcement.

In February 2023, Ty Herndon became engaged to Alex Schwartz, whom he had been dating for six months prior.